


A Room Somewhere

by Prochytes



Category: Dollhouse, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-19
Updated: 2011-05-19
Packaged: 2017-10-19 14:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/201679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prochytes/pseuds/Prochytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is not always good to be needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Room Somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for TW 2x12 “Fragments” and Dollhouse 1x01. Originally posted on LJ in 2009.

“Are we inside?”

 

“Of course.” Tosh smiled smugly. “The firewalls were top-notch, which bought them one minute, and I haven’t had my first coffee yet today, which bought them another. But we’re in. And what they’re up to _definitely_ isn’t ‘human resources’.”

 

“Depends on your definition. So, what’s their problem?”

 

Tosh’s eyes flickered across the screen. “The Apocalypse Virus. Very nasty, but not insuperable.”

 

“And can my special girl repair the damage it’s done to their systems?”

 

Tosh glowed. “Special” had worked its anticipated magic. “Easy-peasy. The programs I’m setting up now should patch the worst of it.”

 

For some time the only sounds in the room were Tosh’s key-strokes, punctuated by her humming.

 

“What’s that?”

 

“‘All I want is a room somewhere’.” Tosh finished tapping and looked contentedly at the screen. “ _My Fair Lady_? You must have realized how much I like musicals.”

 

“I hadn’t. You’re full of surprises, Tosh.”

 

“I know all the words, as well. But you haven’t done anything to deserve my singing voice.” She frowned. “Still not clear on why we’re helping this ‘Dollhouse’, though.”

 

“Wheels within wheels, Toshiko. That’s just the way it is.”

 

“From what I’m seeing, their trade is… programmable people. Whatever you need, they can just browse through their library of scans and provide it. Even something as complicated as… oh.”

 

“What’s the problem, Tosh?”

 

“I think I understand.”

 

 

“I don’t follow you.”

 

“Perhaps that wasn’t clear.” She swung around in her chair to face him. “I understand. Everything.”

 

“Ah.” He swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat. “Are you…”

 

Slender fingers reached up to stop his mouth. “No. I can guess the function of what you’re about to say. It’s a sensible precaution. But I’ve done what was needed. So, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to go into what comes next with my eyes open.”

 

“As you wish.” He made the effort to go on looking down into the dark gaze that held his own, and wondered, as so often, about the woman she had been (a tech genius of a terrorist, apparently, left to rot unavowed in military detention somewhere). “Not many would share your composure.”

 

“I don’t have any real choice, do I?” She smiled, a little sadly. “I know all the words to that song, too.”

 

A few minutes later the young woman lay back, shut her eyes, and opened them again.

 

“Did I fall asleep?” asked Echo.

 

“For a little while,” said Langton. 

 

FINIS

 


End file.
